And rightfull folke shull gon, after thei die, CHAP. To hev'n, and shewed him the galaxie.

Then shew'd he him the little yerth that
here is

To regarde of the heven's quantité,
And after shewed he hym the nine speris,
And after that the melodie herd he,
That cometh of thilke sperés thrisé thre,
That welles of musike ben and melodie
In this worlde here, and cause of harmonie.

Then saied he him, Sens that yerth was so
lite,

And full of torment, and of hardé grace,
That he ne shuld hym in this worlde delite;
Then told he him, in certain yerés space
That ev'ry sterre should come into his place
There it was first, and all should out of mind
That in this worlde is doen of all mankynd.
ver. 50.

The poet had spent, as he says, a whole day in the study of the Somnium Scipionis. He informs us that he was extremely fond

XXI.

d spheres.

e heaven. f should be forgotten.

CHAP. of reading; and illustrates this by an appo

XXI.

site simile.

For out of the olde feldés, as men saieth,
Cometh all this newe corne fro yere to yere;
And out of oldé bokés, in gode faieth,
Cometh all this newe science that men lere.

ver. 22.

At length the sun sets, the light by which he
was reading is gone, and Chaucer betakes
himself to bed. He dreams; and imagines
himself, like the hero of the Somnium Scipionis,
attended by the vanquisher of Hannibal. The
passage with which he introduces his dream,
forcibly brings to mind a similar
passage in
Shakespear, though it must be admitted in
this instance that the imitator has greatly
surpassed his original.

The werie hunter sleping in his bedde,
The wodde ayen his minde goeth anone;
The judgé dremeth how his plees be spedde;
The carter dremeth how his cartés gone;
The riche of golde; the knight fight with
hish fone,

The sicke 'ymette he drinketh of the tonne; CHAP. The lover mette he hath his ladie wonne1.

XXI.

ver. 99.

Love.

Under the conduct of the venerable Afri- Temple of canus, Chaucer arrives at a park and a temple, which prove to be consecrated to the God of Love. Considerable effort and vigour of mind are employed in a description of the scenery. The principal particulars which Chaucer has introduced in his account of the temple and the grounds immediately adjacent, are to be found indeed in the seventh

Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on curtsies straight;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees;

Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear; at which he starts, and wakes;
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again.

Romeo and Juliet, act II, scene i.

XXI.

CHAP. book of Boccaccio's Teseide. Chaucer's imitation however, which is by no means a close one, contains many nice and beautiful touches, as well as some trivial and mean expressions, which are not to be found in Boccaccio. Among the former may be cited his description of the breeze which blows in the Garden of Love, while the birds carol aloft.

Therewith a winde, "unneth it might be lesse,
Made in the levés grene a noisé soft,
Accordant to the foulés' song on loft.

ver. 201.

The circumstance is also subtly imagined,
and purely his own, with which he describes
Venus, who had retired to an obscure corner
in her temple; though it has the defect of
repeating one clause of the passage last
quoted.

Darke was that place, but afterward lightnesse
I saw a " lite, "unnethes it might be lesse.

ver. 263,

scarcely.

little.

XXI.

1358.

It may be regarded as a singular circum- CHAP. stance, and characteristic of the imperfect refinement of the times in which Chaucer lived, that a somewhat licentious description of Priapus and Venus is introduced into a poem certainly designed for the perusal of a virgin princess, of great youth, and unimpeachable modesty. These are also among the passages which are without a counterpart in Boccaccio.

Meanwhile it is by no means clear, as has formerly been remarked, whether Chaucer took the story of Palamon and Arcite from Boccaccio, or from the Latin author from whom Boccaccio confesses that he drew his materials. From the circumstance that the description of the Garden and Temple of Love, introduced by Chaucer in this place, and which he has borrowed from the Teseide, or story of Palamon and Arcite, is not to be found in the Knightes Tale, the abridgment of that story in Chaucer's collection of Can

Mr. Tyr

whit re

futed.